No more ‘Life in Hell’ for ‘Simpsons’ creator

It’s the end of an era. Say goodbye to anthropomorphic rabbits. To Binky and Sheba. Say goodbye to Matt Groening’s long-running comic strip “Life in Hell.”

The “Simpsons” creator started the comic strip over three decades ago, but now he’s calling it quits.

“I’ve had great fun, in a Sisyphean kind of way, but the time has come to let Binky and Sheba and Bongo and Akbar and Jeff take some time off,” Groening, 58, said in an email to Poynter.org.

“Life in Hell” was syndicated in alternative newspapers all over the country, but cutbacks slashed the strip’s distribution base.

Poynter reports:

The popularity of “Life in Hell” opened a path for a new breed of alternative cartoonists to appear in alt-weeklies across the country, cartoonists like Tom Tomorrow, Ruben Bolling, Ward Sutton, Keith Knight and Rall. It also showcased the power of sharp, biting cartoons to editors looking to attain and grow a new group of readers.

“Groening is modern cartooning’s rock God, a Moses who came down from the mountain (or the East Village office of the Voice) and handed us the rules we followed,” said (syndicated cartoonist Ted) Rall.

Groening, a Northwest native, says the comic strip caught the attention of Fox executives looking to create animated shorts. And that’s how Homer Simpson was born.